The mobile video space is becoming more crowded by the day. Following on from Vine and its six seconds of recording simplicity, and Instagram and its 15 seconds of recording simplicity, comes MixBit. Can this new startup compete with its more established brethren?

MixBit

MixBit is a combination of app and website. The app lets smartphone users take short videos (of up to 16 seconds in length) and offers simple editing tools. Up to 256 clips can be stitched together to form videos of up to an hour in length.

The website is where these stitched together videos are published for the world to see, though they can also be shared via Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. There are no filters and no standalone social networking shenanigans, just simple video features.

Google recently unveiled Chromecast, a $35 dongle that is able to stream content from mobile devices to your television. This is Google’s latest attempt to grab a foothold in the TV industry, which it’s going to need to be a part of as its future starts to take shape.

Chromecast

Chromecast is a dongle which plugs into an HDMI on your TV. Apps on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop will then sync with Chromecast, giving you the option to watch content from the likes of YouTube, Netflix, and Google Play on the bigscreen.

Google was initially offering three months of Netflix streaming free for anyone who bought Chromecast. But the company quickly ended that promotion citing “overwhelming demand.” In other words Chromecast was clearly going to sell well enough without such an offer, so why continue offering it.

Indeed, demand was so fierce that Chromecast quickly sold out on Google Play. The $35 price tag (with or without the Netflix offer) is cheap enough to make people make a snap purchase and not worry about whether or not it’s worth buying.

Facebook and Twitter have been at war as competing social networks for a number of years. But the latest battleground between the two is mobile video, with Video on Instagram (owned by Facebook) arriving as a direct response to Vine (owned by Twitter).

Vine Vs. Instagram Video

Vine was launched at the beginning of 2013 for iOS devices, with an Android version added later. It offers users the chance to record and share short video clips with consummate ease.

This week has seen Facebook launch Video on Instagram, adding moving pictures to the photo-sharing app snapped up by the social networking site in 2012 for a cool $1 billion. And so we have two almost-identical services competing for users.

Google is currently carrying out a full-on assault aimed at cementing its place on iOS and Apple devices. We’ve already witnessed the Apple Maps vs. Google Maps conflict, and the latest front in this ongoing war is Capture, a new YouTube app clearly aimed at usurping the current default camera app.

YouTube Capture

YouTube Capture, which will appear simply as Capture on the homescreen of your iOS device, is designed to simplify the process of capturing, uploading, and sharing video clips recorded on mobile devices.

It’s currently only available on iOS for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but Google is already working on bringing the dedicated app to Android as well. Capture gives you multiple options in one complete app, all of which benefits YouTube, and, consequently, Google.

After recording your video clip you can label it, use enhancements such as stabilization and color correction, trim the length, and even add a soundtrack. You can then upload it to YouTube and/or share it with various social networks. All without ever having used Apple’s own camera app.

The BBC has announced plans to release its global iPlayer app on the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is currently an iPad exclusive. More countries will also be added to the list of territories where the global iPlayer app is available.

Global iPlayer App

Pretty much as soon as the BBC rolled out the iPlayer in the U.K. international viewers declared they wanted in, even if it meant paying to watch the shows on offer. The BBC is known and respected around the world, and some of its biggest shows are worldwide hits.

It took a long time to happen, but in July 2011 the global iPlayer app was released in 11 European countries including Germany, Italy, and Spain. The one caveat (other than the price of subscribing) being the need to own an Apple iPad, the only platform the global iPlayer app was available on.

Tablets are growing in popularity, and with good reason. The Apple iPad is king right now, but Amazon is ready to unleash its first tablet on the world. And it could compete, partly thanks to online video.

Video On Tablets

People lucky enough to own a tablet computer are likely to enjoy a higher level of engagement with online video than their poor notebook- or desktop-owning cousins. At least according to Ooyala, which provides a range of video services to brands and businesses.

For each minute of video content watched on a desktop, 1 minute, 17 seconds will be watched on a tablet. Which represents a 28 percent advantage. Tablet owners are also more than twice as likely to watch a video to the end, and a third more likely than people watching on mobile devices.

Life In A Day was a spectacularly well-made look at how different people around the world lived their lives on one day in 2010. But could the same work on a country-specific basis? The BBC intends to find out with Britain In A Day.

Britain In A Day

You will hopefully have watched Life In A Day by now. I’ve watched it twice, once on YouTube and once on the BBC. After it aired on the BBC a trailer for a British-only version was shown. Titled, rather predictably, Britain In A Day.

The BBC is inviting everybody in the U.K. to video themselves on (Saturday) November 12 and upload the results to YouTube. Director Morgan Matthews will then sift through the footage before cutting it into a feature-length documentary film that will be shown on BBC2 prior to the 2012 Olympic Games.